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30 dead, mostly children, as India school bus plunges off cliff
30 dead, mostly children, as India school bus plunges off cliff
INDIA: At least 30 people, including 27 children, were killed yesterday (Apr 9) in northern India when a school bus plunged into a deep ravine in the Himalayan foothills, police said.
Reinvigorated Belfast still bears scars of past conflict
Reinvigorated Belfast still bears scars of past conflict
NORTHERN IRELAND: In the 20 years since a peace accord ended decades of violence in Northern Ireland, its capital has changed radically but hopes of a prosperous peace are still far from being realised.
Power to the people
Power to the people
INDIA: Deepa Bhoir used to sit in darkness outside her island home and stare at Mumbai glowing in the distance. Now she stays up late watching soap operas – one of millions of Indians whose lives have been transformed by a drive to get power to every corner of the country.
China sperm bank demands loyalty to Communist Party
China sperm bank demands loyalty to Communist Party
One of the largest sperm banks in Beijing has set loyalty to the Communist Party as a prerequisite for donors, in a sign that China's increasing emphasis on ideological training is being extended to the womb.
Facebook to verify identities, require labels for political ads
Facebook to verify identities, require labels for political ads
Facebook announced Friday (Apr 6) it will require political ads on its platform to state who is paying for the message and would verify the identity of the payer, in a bid to curb outside election interference. The social network, which is under fire for enabling manipulation of its platform in the 2016 election, said the new policy would require any messages for candidates or public issues to include the label "political ad" with the name of the person or entity paying for it. Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg said the change will mean "we will hire thousands of more people" to get the new system in place ahead of US midterm elections in November. "We're starting this in the US and expanding to the rest of the world in the coming months," Zuckerberg said on his Facebook page. "These steps by themselves won't stop all people trying to game the system. But they will make it a lot harder for anyone to do what the Russians did during the 2016 election and use fake accounts and pages to run ads." A separate Facebook statement said the changes would help improve transparency and accountability of the network around political campaigns. "We believe that when you visit a page or see an ad on Facebook, it should be clear who it's coming from," the statement said. To get authorized by Facebook, "advertisers will need to confirm their identity and location," the statement said. "Advertisers will be prohibited from running political ads – electoral or issue-based – until they are authorized." Facebook made the announcement as Zuckerberg prepared to appear before Congress next week to answer questions about the harvesting of personal data on 87 million users by Cambridge Analytica, a British political consultancy working for Donald Trump's presidential campaign. The move also comes amid concerns that Russian-sponsored entities delivered Facebook ads designed to create discord and confusion ahead of the election and that firms like Cambridge Analytica created messages based on psychographic profiles gleaned from the platform to influence voters.   Sandberg's apology Separately, Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg offered fresh apologies to users for failing to do enough on privacy and data protection. "We know that we did not do enough to protect people's data," Sandberg told National Public Radio. "I'm really sorry for that. Mark is really sorry for that, and what we're doing now is taking really firm action." Sandberg said Facebook first became aware in 2015 that Cambridge Analytica had obtained user data from a researcher who put up a poll on the social network. "When we received word that this researcher gave the data to Cambridge Analytica, they assured us it was deleted," she said. "We did not follow up and confirm, and that's on us -- and particularly once they were active in the election, we should have done that." Sandberg was asked by NBC television's "Today Show" if other cases of user data misuse could be expected. "We're doing an investigation, we're going to do audits and yes, we think it's possible, that's why we're doing the audit," she said. Sandberg said Facebook also should have been more proactive in dealing with Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. "That was something we should have caught, we should have known about," she told NPR. "We didn't. Now we've learned." The firestorm over the improper data shared has sparked calls for investigations on both sides of the Atlantic. In Brussels, a European Union spokesman said Facebook confirmed that up to 2.7 million people in the EU may have been affected by the personal data scandal. "We will study the letter (from Facebook) in more detail, but it is already clear that this will need further follow-up discussions with Facebook," spokesman Christopher Wigand said.
Paradise Boracay a ‘cesspool’ of sewage, closed to tourists for six months
Paradise Boracay a ‘cesspool’ of sewage, closed to tourists for six months
THE PHILIPPINES: Calling the popular Philippines tourist island of Boracay a “cesspool” tainted by dumped sewage, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered the island closed to tourists for up to six months.
Bangladesh to start relocating Rohingya to desolate island in June
Bangladesh to start relocating Rohingya to desolate island in June
BANGLADESH: Bangladesh will begin relocating around 100,000 Rohingya refugees to a desolate island off its southern coast in June, a senior official said yesterday (Apr 4), despite warnings the site is prone to violent weather.
London looks for answers as murder rate soars
London looks for answers as murder rate soars
UNITED KINGDOM: Another deadly night in London is putting pressure on political leaders, as a surge in violence on the streets of the British capital pushes its murder rate higher than New York’s.
Boat carrying Rohingya arrives in Malaysia: official
Boat carrying Rohingya arrives in Malaysia: official
MALAYSIA: A boat carrying dozens of Rohingya from Myanmar arrived in Malaysia today (Apr 3) and the members of the stateless Muslim minority will be allowed to enter the country, authorities said.
Winnie Mandela, activist ex-wife of Nelson Mandela, dies
Winnie Mandela, activist ex-wife of Nelson Mandela, dies
SOUTH AFRICA: Winnie Mandela, the former wife of South African anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela, died yesterday (Apr 2) aged 81, triggering an outpouring of tributes to one of the country’s defining and most divisive figures.
Defunct Chinese space lab plunges back to Earth over Pacific
Defunct Chinese space lab plunges back to Earth over Pacific
CHINA: A defunct Chinese space lab broke apart as it hurtled through Earth’s atmosphere today (Apr 2) and plunged towards a watery grave in the South Pacific, Chinese officials said.
Boat carrying Rohingya stops on Thai island: official
Boat carrying Rohingya stops on Thai island: official
KRABI: A boat carrying dozens of Rohingya refugees trying to reach Malaysia briefly stopped on a Thai island, an official said yesterday (Apr 1), as fears grow about overcrowded camps for the stateless minority fleeing violence in Myanmar.
Bulgaria’s skiing boomtown
Bulgaria’s skiing boomtown
BULGARIA: “Unlimited Ski and Fun!” promises a pamphlet touting the Bansko ski resort, a magnet for bargain-hunting holidaymakers in southwest Bulgaria.
The coffee converts of Kabul
The coffee converts of Kabul
AFGHANISTAN: Afghans in need of a caffeine fix line up at Najibullah Sharyari’s coffee cart in Kabul – converts to the drink that is now percolating in a country obsessed with tea for centuries.
Man City bearing down on title as Premier League returns
Man City bearing down on title as Premier League returns
FOOTBALL: The Premier League roars back into action this weekend for the season’s home straight after a two-week hiatus for the final international break of the campaign.
Venezuela jailbreak attempt sparks blaze, 68 dead
Venezuela jailbreak attempt sparks blaze, 68 dead
VENEZUELA: A total of 68 people died yesterday (Mar 28) during an attempted jailbreak in Venezuela after a fire engulfed police holding cells in one of the worst tragedies in years in a notoriously violent and overcrowded prison system.
Disgraced skipper Smith to face the music in Australia
Disgraced skipper Smith to face the music in Australia
CRICKET: Disgraced skipper Steve Smith and his deputy David Warner were heading home to an angry Australia today (Mar 29) after being banned for a year over a cheating scandal that has left their careers in tatters and sponsors deserting the game.
Ecuador stops Assange communicating from its London embassy
Ecuador stops Assange communicating from its London embassy
UNITED KINGDOM: Ecuador yesterday (Mar 28) said it has stopped Julian Assange’s ability to communicate to the outside world from its London embassy, where the WikiLeaks founder has been holed up since 2012.
37 dead, scores missing in Siberia shopping centre fire
37 dead, scores missing in Siberia shopping centre fire
RUSSIA: At least 37 people were killed when a fire ripped through a busy shopping centre in an industrial city in western Siberia, with scores more reported missing, including children.
Thailand's monkeys use tools to crack nuts, shuck oysters
Thailand's monkeys use tools to crack nuts, shuck oysters
Wild macaque monkeys have learned to use tools to crack open nuts and even shuck oysters, researchers said last Wednesday (Mar 21), identifying a rare skill-set long thought to be the exclusive party trick of humans and chimps. Scientists from Britain and Thailand, where the native long-tailed macaque (Macaca fascicularis) feeds on sea almonds, oil palm nuts and the occasional bivalve, observed the monkeys using stones for two distinct tasks. Larger rocks, some weighing up to two kilograms, were used as a hammer to smash open nuts, while sharper stones formed knife-like levers to jimmy open prey such as oysters. Before the study, conducted on Thailand's Piak Nam Yai island, it was thought that only chimpanzees and bearded capuchins used stones to break open food in the wild. Professor Tomos Proffitt, British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at University College London, who wrote the study, said it could have wide relevance to primate studies. "It contributes to our increasing understanding that not only apes and humans use tools for different tasks," he told AFP. "We should view macaques as highly intelligent problem solvers, in the same way that chimpanzees, capuchin monkeys are and early humans were also." Scientists in Brazil in 2016 observed wild-bearded capuchin monkeys hammering away at stones to create rough flakes similar to the tools first used by human forerunners. But one of the macaques' food sources, the oil palm, was only introduced to their island in the past few decades, meaning that the monkeys have learned to use tools to access its fruit for food extremely quickly, evolutionarily speaking. "What we see is that they are adapting this stone tool use to other food sources away from the coast," Proffitt said. "In many cases of primate tool use these behaviours are learnt by youngsters through many years of observation and is not something that is genetically coded into them." The study was published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.